Regional Workshops

Emerging Leaders

The South Carolina Association of School Librarians (SCASL) is offering a special professional development opportunity for school librarians who have been in the field for five years or less. This year long program will begin with an introductory session at the 2019 SCASL conference and will conclude with the pre-conference held at the 2020 SCASL conference in March. You will have an opportunity to meet and collaborate with new and experienced librarians in South Carolina, SCASL Board members, and join networks in your area of the state affiliated with SCASL. You will learn more about being a leader in your school and district. You will also learn what SCASL is, what we do, and how you can be an active part of the organization.

The 2018-2019 SCASL Elections Committee proudly presents the Official 2019 SCASL Slate of Officers up for election at our #SCASL2019 Conference. The Elections Committee accepted nominations through October 29, 2018, and after careful consideration, these are the members who accepted their nomination to be considered for our election procedure at our annual conference. SCASL had many nominations this year for our open positions. A key component of a nomination process is the nominee accepting their nomination. The members of this year's Slate are excited to be a active members of our organization in various future capacities, from Executive Board positions (President-Elect, Secretary) to those charged with accepting and vetting nominations for the 2020 Slate of Officers (Members-at-Large.) Thank you to the many who nominated names. Each nominee who accepted their nominations was vetted and presented to the Board of Directors for approval. With that approval today, we are ready to share the 2019 SCASL Slate of Officers.

Linda Waskow has a BS in Elementary Education from The King’s College in New York, a M.Ed. in Early Childhood Education from the University of South Carolina, an MLIS from the University of South Carolina and a Doctorate in Education in Child and Youth Studies and Instructional Technology from Nova Southeastern University in Florida. She s currently the school librarian at Beaufort Elementary School. Linda has served in a variety of roles throughout her 40 years in education from the classroom to professional development. She will be the first to tell you that she has always wanted to be a school librarian and finally got around to it 10 years ago. Linda’s experiences in the classroom, love for reading and technology have blended into the skills set for 21st century school librarians – future ready librarians. As SCASL President Elect, Linda’s goals include developing a mentor program for school librarians who are new to the profession and those new to South Carolina as both must undergo the ADEPT for Media Specialists evaluation, and facilitating the growth of future ready librarians in South Carolina.

Are you a school librarian who uses Coretta Scott King (CSK) winning titles in innovative lessons? Are you a public librarian using CSK winning titles for programs or storytimes? Do you have a connection to, a cool story about, or a unique artifact of a CSK award winner? If so, the CSK Technology Committee would like to hear from you. As we count down to our 50th-anniversary celebration in Washington D.C., we would like to feature the many ways our community uses and engages with CSK award-winning books in their libraries. Our goal is to feature as many CSK Award-winning titles and Honor books on the CSK blog from now until our big celebration. If you would like to write your submission or be interviewed about your work by a member of the technology committee, please contact us at [email protected]. Be sure to include the CSK title that will be highlighted in the post. Additionally, if you have ideas on how we can feature older award-winners, we would love to hear about that, too.

It is obvious that we need to do a better job of sharing our story and illustrating our impact on student learning. Join the South Carolina Association of School Librarians Legislative committee, as we promote school libraries each month during the 18-19 school year. Our program, Speak Up SCASL, is a monthly social media campaign to share the instruction, reading programs, technology integration, and impact that SC’s school libraries have on our students and teachers. Each month from August to May, we are asking that you share a story and photo related to that month’s topic. You can share on a social media site or by email to our local, state, and national stakeholders. We hope you’ll join us in advocating for school libraries. Participation is easy!

Know any great SCASL Librarians? Nominate them today for a leadership position! Send your nominations or questions to Cathy Jo Nelson, our Immediate Past President and current chair of the Elections Committee.

With the full support and cooperation of South Carolina Department of Education Office of Educator Effectiveness and Leadership Development, SCASL is collecting school library information to analyze and share. We are collecting the information to show the SDE the importance and relevance of school libraries. We are actively working to add school library information to future report cards.

Please know that Librarians across our state WILL HAVE ACCESS to the results of this survey by September-ish to share with your "powers that be" for the purpose of advocacy for your libraries. It will be presented with graphics and information, and you may use it as you see fit. This is a FIRST, as in the last ten years, the data collected was collected, but little more. Your state organization, SCASL has permission to assist with collection, analysis, and permission to publish for use!

This spring your SCASL leadership, specifically Cathy Jo Nelson, President of the SC Asscoaition of School Librarians, and Shannon Ryan, our SCASL Liasison representing and working with School Librarian Supervisors across the state of South Carolina, teamed up to share the June 2017 SC School Librarian's annual survey results. Our South Carolina State Deprtment of Education has sponsored an annual survey for well over ten years now, collecting data from collection size, to age, to types of circulationg materials and much, much more. In the summer/fall of 2016, SC Librarians landed on the SC School's Annual Report Card.

Please join us for the Annual SCASL Summer Institute planned for June 12, 2018 at Seawell's in Columbia, SC as we take a "deep dive" into learning the new AASL National Standards. 9 am - 2:15 pm; buffet lunch included.

Yesterday we shared a (silent) video showing how to access and print your conference transcripts. Today we are showing how to access handouts. Here is that recording: https://youtu.be/pZNqdWnb5Xo. Please note that not everyone posted handouts in the sched platform. You may need to contact presenter directly if there are no handouts in SCASL18.sched.com.

SCHED is Open!

You can get a preliminary look at our SCASL 2018 schedule now at scasl18.sched.com. Go to the website on your mobile device and add it to your homescreen to have easy access to the schedule during conference. See event descriptions and add sessions to your personal schedule. During conference, use it to check in to the sessions to create your transcript that can be used for your recertification credit!

At ALA Midwinter, Heather Thore and I learned of some resources made by other affiliates who graciously said all could share. Here is a Powerpoint for the Pennsylvania Affiliate we thought was really good. If you'd like to dig deeper, feel free to download it, as there are notes on several slides.

This was something shared form ALA Midwinter too--it is designed to be printed out on 11x17 paper, but one can also print on two standard pages ideally front and back. At the Regional Meetings theLinda Heimburger from the DISCUS/State Library had these on hand.

If you are looking to inform yourself or share with other stakeholders, this is a nice item to print or share.

The SCASL--USC-SLIS--SC SDE Librarians Regional Meetings concluded today. There was much sharing going on at these meetings. I attended the one helped in Greenville at wade Hampton. There was a lot of discussion during Heather Thore's Presentation on the newly released AASL Standards, and where we all need to go from here. We tried to assure the attendees that as materials were released that were trainings and information about implementation, we would share.

After our wonderful lunch provided by SCASL Sponsor Follett (who brought in Jason's Deli goodness in Greenville) we broke into smaller session. I myself attended the STEM DISCUS session, the Town hall like session "Let's Talk" led by Dr. Gerry Solomon, and The Ebook session led by Dr. Karen Gavigan, I was on information overload. I will request handouts and resources shared over the regional meetings and return here to share those so be on the lookout.